1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to service provision by means of communications networks. It finds particular application in aspects such as access control, presentation of services to users and management of those services.
2. Related Art
Increasingly in the future, different types of services are likely to be offered over communications networks. For instance the increasing capability of technology is enabling a future where a wide variety of multimedia services can be delivered to users over communications networks. These services could include simple voice telephony, multimedia conference amongst many users, home shopping and video on demand. Additionally users may want such services to be delivered over a variety of terminal types such as a portable phone, portable personal computer and domestic television set with a set-top-box.
These services come not only from development of the telecommunications environment, including telephony and cable television, but also from environments previously separate, such as the computing environment. For instance, there has been major growth of computer network services, such as those available on Internet. Collectively all these services are referred to herein as information services.
Although to date (at least in the telephony world) the communication network operator and the service provider (SP) have generally coincided, this is not essential. Another trend expected in the future is that, increasingly, the service provider will be separate from the network operator. As in the case of Internet, several SPs (vendors) may offer their services (products) over a common network. Indeed, there may be further complexity involved in that the "common network" might in fact comprise multiple networks connected together, managed by many different network providers.
In circumstances where many different services, supplied by multiple vendors, are available over one, or multiple, communications networks, there is an opportunity for service brokers. Competitive advantage can be gained by such brokers by offering customers better services and more effective access arrangements to those services. Another name for the service broker is a service retailer.
In the light of this accelerating complexity in the world of communications, with many different entities being involved in the exploitation of a fast growing range of different services, there is a clear need for relatively sophisticated service provision and/or management systems.